1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to merchant offers and, more specifically, to offer-discovery systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Offer-discovery systems provide a service by which merchants inform customers of offers, for example deals (like discounts, favorable shipping terms, or rebates) or coupons (like printable coupons for in-store use or coupon codes for use online). Typically, the systems store information about offers from a relatively large number of merchants and provide an interface by which customers can identify offers in which the customer is interested. Merchants have found the deal-discovery systems to be a relatively effective form of marketing, as cost-sensitive consumers are drawn to such systems due to the system's relatively comprehensive listing of offers, and as a result, the number of offers listed on such systems has increased in recent years. One consequence of this increase is that users (e.g., prospective customers of the merchants) face an increasingly complex task of identifying relevant offers on offer-discovery systems and recalling information about the offer when making a purchase, potentially sometime in the future after first discovering the offer, and potentially in different instances of a browser window or on a different computing device.
Adding to the complexity faced by users is the existence of multiple offer-discovery systems in which the user may choose to participate. To search for relevant offers, users often navigate to a specific offer-discovery system preferred by that user before searching for offers, a task which can add several steps to the process of identifying relevant offers and can discourage users from searching for offers.